Pretzel softball tourney brings in six state-ranked teams

Jeff Sands envisioned seven years ago that Freeport would host the best early-season softball tournament in the state.The Freeport coach has seen the Lady Pretz Softball Invitational become just that, with a tournament featuring some of the best teams in the state in each class.“I don’t kn...

Jeff Sands envisioned seven years ago that Freeport would host the best early-season softball tournament in the state.

The Freeport coach has seen the Lady Pretz Softball Invitational become just that, with a tournament featuring some of the best teams in the state in each class.

“I don’t know if you can go anywhere in the state this early in the season and see six teams that are ranked Top 20 in the state,” Sands said.

Marengo, ranked No. 14 in the Illinois Coaches Associated Poll, was last year’s Class 3A state runner-up. Milledgeville is ranked No. 3 and finished third in Class 1A last year. Oak Forest (No. 10 in 3A, a sectional finalist), Metamora (No. 3 in 3A, sectional finalist), Morrison (No. 11 in 2A, regional finalist) and LaSalle-Peru (No. 19 in 3A, regional champion) all are ranked after winning at least a regional title last year.

“Marengo has been at the state tournament for the last two years,” Sands said. “Oak Forest has won state, Metamora has won state. We’ve had the state tournament winner or runner-up coming out of this tournament. It’s a fantastic tournament, especially for the preseason, and it’s great that they like the competition.”

Host Freeport and Normal University aren’t ranked, but could be a factor in the eight-team tournament. All teams will be eager to get more games in, as the softball season has been limited due to inclement weather and field conditions.

As of Thursday afternoon, it was still uncertain whether or the games would be played at Read Park or at another location.

“We’ve had some good luck the last couple of years being able to get things in,” Sands said. “The fields are a little wet yet, but we’re getting them dried out.

“Ideally we’d like to play them all at Read Park, but we have other diamonds we can play on if we have to. Not too many teams have had too many games yet due to the weather.”

Sands said Taylor Park would be another possible location for the tournament, should it need to be moved.

The Pretzels are young this year and Sands expects the team to use the tournament as a learning experience and that it will help the team’s growth as the season moves on.

“We just want to get some games under our belt,” he said. “We’ll see some of the best teams in the state and as the year goes on, we’re not going to see anything better.

“We’ve got four or five sophomores and a freshman starting. We’ll have some learning as we go through the season, but they’ll come along and seeing those caliber of teams this week certainly won’t hurt us as we go along.”